First, check all the processes that are running:

SELECT * FROM pg_stat_activity WHERE state = 'active';

So you can identify the PID of the hanging query you want to terminate, run this:

SELECT pg_cancel_backend(PID);

This query might take a while to kill the query, so if you want to kill it the hard way, run this instead:

SELECT pg_terminate_backend(PID);

Need a good GUI Tool for PostgreSQL? TablePlus is a modern, native tool with an elegant UI that allows you to simultaneously manage multiple databases such as MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, Microsoft SQL Server and more.


Download TablePlus for Mac.

Not on Mac? Download TablePlus for Windows.

On Linux? Download TablePlus for Linux

Need a quick edit on the go? Download TablePlus for iOS.

TablePlus GUI Tool PostgreSQL